It’s funny, because as far as we know, Mordred did very little wrong. He’s only in three episodes as a child (11 years old, if we say he’s the same age as Asa Butterfield was at the time):
In the first (1x08), he’s hunted, wounded, and dying, and does nothing wrong other than break a mirror when his father, who allowed himself to be captured to give Mordred a chance to escape, is executed.
In the second (2x03), he’s happy to see Morgana and wants to take care of her like she took care of him. Then Uther’s soldiers raid the camp to “rescue” Morgana, and Mordred defends himself. He’s surrounded by grown warriors who intend to kill him and everyone in the camp, and he reacts by throwing them all back with magic. They might have died, but they might have just been knocked out; it’s never confirmed either way. But he was a child reacting out of fear and for self-defense.
In the third (2x11), he’s being used by a sorcerer who wants to take advantage of his power and his connection to Morgana. Mordred does intentionally kill two guards—after all his allies are dead or captured, after he tries to escape by running for his life, and after Merlin trips him so he’ll be caught.
“I shall never forgive this, Emrys, and I shall never forget,” Mordred says to Merlin then.
Yet when we see him again in s5, he just proves himself wrong. Mordred puts all of his hope and trust in Merlin and Arthur, believing that they can bring the future he dreams of. But nothing changes, Merlin hates him, and Arthur executes Kara. Both of the people Mordred had so admired let him down.
Think about this: If Mordred is 11 when we first see him, and the series takes place over the course of a decade, he’s 21 at most, possibly as young as 18-19, when we see him in 5x01. By then, Merlin and Arthur are in their late 20s / early 30s.
Mordred—a heartbroken teenager betrayed by the people he looked up to, furious and disillusioned—turns to Morgana and violence. In anger and grief, he kills the man who killed the girl he loved and countless people like her.
It’s funny, because Mordred made mistakes and he hurt and killed people, but he was never malicious in any way. He was always scared, hopeful, and trusting.
But he struck the final blow against Arthur, so some people think Merlin should have killed him when he was a terrified child trying to survive.
(And by “funny,” I mean “fucked up.”)
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